Mad Men’s YouTube Chain Reaction
Posted on June 16, 2011
Special note. – Links to excerpts from copyrighted motion pictures provided below are all from legitimate sources. Since they get less traffic than YouTube, there’s normally a slight delay before the video plays, but once started it normally proceeds without buffering.
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A couple of years ago an episode of AMC’s hit TV show Mad Men included an excerpt of a youthful Ann Margret in a sexy performance of the title song from 1963’s Bye, Bye Birdie. The enticing clip prompted a number of posts to YouTube where the most popular one remaining has been viewed half a million times.
Apparently, nostalgia triggered a chain reaction resulting in YouTube uploads of other popular songs including Birdie’s swoon-inducing Honestly Sincere and the gossipy Telephone Hour. Eventually the entire movie got uploaded. It must be watched in a series of ten minute segments, but the interruptions are less annoying than regular TV commercials. I was able to view the samples and as well as the complete motion picture on my TV-set owing to a YouTube-compatible TiVo.
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The experience initiated a personal reaction-train as I began to recollect other Ann Margret movies from the era. At the top of the list was The Cincinnati Kid staring the iconic and nostalgia-amplifying Steve McQueen. At first I could only find YouTube clips, but finally located the whole movie in a series of eight 14-minute segments. Read more…
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Fixing a Home Wi-Fi Problem
Posted on June 9, 2011
This past weekend I decided to rent a movie from Amazon-Video-on-Demand. The service is available via my TiVo, which makes it easy to watch the movies on my TV-set instead of a computer. I’ve done it about a dozen times before. Except when it was a new service, the experience has been generally satisfactory.
But, not this last time.
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Unfortunately my TiVo simply gave me an error message. So, like most of us, I shrugged my shoulders and repeated the selection process. TiVo threw-up on me a second time.
Frowning, I proceeded to TiVo’s troubleshooting instructions which suggested I check “Network and Settings”. After a few button-clicks, I learned that TiVo was receiving a “marginal” (35%) Wi-Fi signal from the router in my home office in the adjacent room. My current TiVo uses Wi-Fi to access the Internet to keep its program guide up-to-date and fetch movies from Amazon-Video-on-Demand. Older models typically used dial-up telephone lines which makes the Amazon service problematic. Read more…
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When Habit Becomes Reflex
Posted on May 17, 2010
While watching a theatrical motion picture, have you ever instinctively reached for the DVR remote in order to replay a scene where you didn’t quite catch the dialog?
I have – a number of times. Even though I was in a dark theater surrounded by many people, it became a reflex.
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There have been similar experiences while listening to my car radio. I get sporadic impulses to advance the playlist to the next song. It happens when I don’t like the DJ’s current selection. Read more…
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How My Video Consumption Changed
Posted on August 17, 2009
Phil Leigh
If you would like to learn how my media usage changed during a recent period of enforced idleness, this audio program is for you.
Owing to medical leave during the past two-weeks I have been relatively inactive at the office. This led to an increase, as well as a change in the pattern of, media consumption. Today’s podcast explains how. Read more…
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Is TV-to-Laptop-to-Internet Geeky?
Posted on February 19, 2009
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If you are curious to know whether connecting a laptop to a flat-panel TV is an effective and “user-friendly” way of getting Internet Video to the TV, this video interview is for you.
Our guest today is a man named Scott who connected his laptop computer to a 46-inch flat-panel TV. He wanted unlimited Internet Video on the new television. Scott has a MBA and works in the financial services industry as a non-technical executive. Read more…
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Netflix “Watch Now” Fame Misses Bigger Point
Posted on February 9, 2009
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If you would like to learn how the recent publicity surrounding Netflix’s “Watch Now” Internet-Video-to-the-TV initiative misses a bigger truth about Third Generation Television, this video is for you.
Confessedly, Netflix is doing an outstanding job to make the company a major winner as Internet-Video-to-the-TV gains momentum. First, they purchased the rights to stream 12,000 movie titles enabling subscribers to watch them (nearly) instantly. Second, they contracted with important appliance manufacturers to embed the service in their devices. Examples include Microsoft’s Xbox, certain TiVo models, Blu-ray players from LG and Samsung, and ultimately even TVs from LG and Vizio. Read more…
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How to get Internet Video to the Television
Posted on September 15, 2008
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If you would like to learn how to get Internet video to your television by using TiVo and/or Amazon.com, this show is for you.
It is increasingly evident that there is a huge latent demand for getting Internet video to the television. It has been an elusive goal for the past eight years, or so. Now it appears as if significant progress is being made. It’s not from a single major product introduction, but instead from a number of innovations from a variety of manufactures and websites. Examples include Netflix, Sony Bravia, Amazon.com, Apple TV, and TiVo. In this video we demonstrate how it is done with TiVo and Amazon.com. Read more…
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Olympics and Court Action May Accelerate DVR Adoption
Posted on September 1, 2008
A recent appellate court decision, in combination with the NBC’s Olympic TV viewing experience, may well prompt acceleration in the adoption of DVRs (e.g. TiVo’s). I discuss the points with Jim Burger, who is a copyright attorney with DowLohnes in Washington D.C.
Originally Cablevision announced plans to offer a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) service to be hosted within the physical CATV network instead via on-premises equipment that must be installed in the homes of individual subscribers. One advantage is that the “networked-DVR” would enable Cablevision to roll out the service through many of the set-top boxes already deployed with subscribers. Thus, the company could avoid the expense of installing new set-top boxes for those subscribers choosing the DVR service. Read more…
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